I would like to respond in detail to clarify that WMAP does follow the "one eighth rule".
In order to understand the answer to this question, and resolve what looks initially like a conflict between my proposition and WMAP data, it is first necessary to understand the dispute that broke out between cosmologists and astronomers in the 1990s about the age of the universe. This was referred to as the age crisis. The issue that was that the oldest items in the universe cannot be older than the of the universe. At this time the age of the universe was thought to be 9 billion years. My proposition is that this would lead to a radius of 9 billion light years (and will deal with inflation related issues if my proposal withstands scrutiny). Based on radioactive decay the age of some stars was at the time thought to be 18 billion years, meaning that that the radius of the universe would be 18 billion years in my proposition.
In order to resolve this issue two modifications were made which led to the figure we have today which is half way between these numbers at 13.5 billion years as the age of the universe. The group I would term the ‘cosmologists’ used the higher figure and the ‘astronomers’ the lower figure. The first change made by the ‘cosmologists’ was that the age of the oldest objects was adjusted downwards. The second was that the density of the intergalactic gas was made thicker than that required for an 18 billion light year radius universe. This allowed for the current date of 13.5 billion year old universe.
There is, however a third option. This is the idea that there are two separate ages for particles based on their spin. Particles related to atoms have a spin of ½ and forces/rays related to radioactivity have a spin of 1. If it is accepted that this is the case then in the ‘simple/two clock’ version of my proposition the universe consists of two distinct constituent parts that overlap. The universe that we see has a 9 billion year age but there are also forces/rays that are 18 billion years old, These can, however, only have a spin of 1.
The figure of 8 times comes from the relation between the volume of a 9 billion light year radius universe and that of an 18 billion light year radius universe which is 1/8.
I then require for the split to be 3.125% atomic matter, 21.875% dark matter and 75% dark energy. Although dark energy does not form part of the simple/two clock model it is part of my proposition and orthodox theories. Using this as a starting point the easiest place to start is to consider is why the figure for dark energy was 73% not 75% in WMAP. The reason for this was that WMAP worked on density and overstated the size, and therefore the total atomic mass (mass based on atoms), of the universe. The figure used for the radius of the universe was 13.5 billion light years versus the true figure of 9 billion years meaning an overstatement by 3.375 of the amount of matter that could be assumed at the stated density. The figure of 3.375 comes from the relation between the volume of a 9 and 13.5 light year radius universe. If the figure for atoms from WMAP (4.56%) is divided by this figure (3.375) the new total is 1.35% of the total of the universe.
This figure of 4.56% is low – compared with the expected figure for my proposition which would be 3.125 (expected portion) x 3.375 (overstatement) = 10.47(%). This means that some atomic matter has been included in the total for dark matter. It is essential to remove that portion and divide it by 3.375. This is 5.91 and thus this portion is 1.75 after the division by 3.375. In order to work out the correct figure for dark matter we need to remove this from the dark matter and put it with atomic matter. This brings the total for dark matter down from 22.8 to (22.8 – 1.75) or 21.05. This is slightly less that the 21.875 figure expected but within the 1.3% margin for error allowed for by WMAP. This leaves dark energy at 75.85 % against the expected 75%. This is again within the (1.5%) margin of error allowed by WMAP.
This leaves the question of why the figure for atoms was less than 3.125 (ie why was it 1.35% not 3.125 as expected) in the original calculation. The reason for this is that the true size of the universe in the orthodox model is 18 billion light years. It was shrunk as part of the age crisis. The original figure was actually correct in terms of spin 1 particles. This shrinkage was not necessary in my view and creates an error which must be removed.
The ratio of the volume beween the 13.5 billion light year radius universe and the 18 billion light year radius universe is 18 cubed to 13.5 cubed or 5832 to 2460. This is 2.37:1. We need to remove the error created by this unnecessary shrinking of the universe. To do this we multiply the 1.35 figure by this ratio and we get to 3.19 which is close to 3.125 and within a reasonable margin for error.
There are therefore two separate dark matter effects. The total ratio for dark matter is 1:8 (1 to 8) and the orthodox model says that the size of the universe is 13.5 billion light years in radius. There is a dark matter effect related to the fact that the universe is only 9 billion light years radius compared with the proposed 13.5 billion light year radius and a second which is related to the fact that the orthodox model should be working on a basis of 18 billion light years if it is to use radioactivity as its base. The first of these produces a figure of 3.35 as an overstatement and the second the figure of 2.37. This is why the WMAP probe came to the figure of 4.54% as the matter content for the universe. The figure of 4.54 is (within 0.1% of) 100 / 32 (ie the proportion my proposition expects for matter) divided by the ratio of the volumes of new (post age crisis) and original pre age crisis orthodox universe multiplied by the difference between the current orthodox and original astronomical view of the universe.
For these reasons the WMAP data does back up the one eighth rule.
I also wanted to answer a separate point
"The press release is about 19 exoplanets that have been confirmed from Kepler’s observations. The number of exoplanets confirmed from other sources numbers in the hundreds. So “all normal exoplanets” is a little bigger set than you seem to think."
Although there are many exoplanets the only ones that are relevant to the discussion are the ones for which we have densities. These are the exoplanets observed through the transit method. In particular those with orbits of more than 14 days are of particular interest as those very close to their stars may be dissimilar to those in our solar system.
There have been 12 exoplanets discovered which have orbits of more than 14 days (and less than 365 days) and for which we know the density. The heart of the issue is whether these are (large) rocky planets or gas giants.
Two of these planets have highly eccentric orbits which bring them close to their stars. The ten that have regular orbits have densities around one eighth of the rocky planets (venus and mercury) that orbit the sun.
Exoplanet density oribital period
Kepler-18d 0.27 14.85888
Kepler-9b 0.536 19.243158
HD 17156 b 3.065 21.214398 eccentric orbit
Kepler-11d 0.882 22.687189
Kepler-11e 0.531 31.995899
Kepler-9c 0.393 38.90861
Kepler-11f 0.754 46.688756
COROT-9b 0.945 95.273774
HD 80606 b 4.741 111.436366 eccentric orbit
Kepler-11g 0.725 118.377738
Kepler-35b 0.41 131.458
Kepler-16b 0.964 228.776
The density of mercury is 5.427 and venus is 5.204. If we divide these by eight we get 0.68 for mercury and venus is 0.65. These match well with the results in the table
For these reasons I don't believe that the other exoplanets (although many hundreds in number) will add significantly to the discussion.
Ed Joyce